The recently revealed 18th annual Global CEO Survey by Pwc, based on 1,322 interviews with CEOs in 77 countries, has proved a common macroeconomic concern for the major mature and developing markets—the global growth prospects continue to slow down and optimism among global business leaders fades.

That’s why along with limited abilities for geographical expansion, competition for the customers sharpens. 56% of CEOs believe that organizations will be increasingly competing in the new sectors, while 32% of the respondents see the technology sector as the main source of cross-sector competition. Put under pressure, 54% of them already entered or considered to enter a new sector.

Pic.: the major sources for cross-sector competition, PwC, 2014

A striking fact is that the rapid technological change, on the one hand, is seen by 58% as the greatest challenge, and at the same time considered by over 80% as a key strand of their business strategy. More specifically, 81% considered mobile technologies for customer engagements to be “strategically important” for their business growth, followed by data analysis (80%), cyber security (78%), the Internet of things (65%), social channels (61%) and cloud computing (60%).

Among the top three threads for business growth, CEOs named state over-regulation (78%), lack of specialists with key skills (73%) and government fiscal policy towards budget deficit (72%), followed by geopolitical uncertainty (72%), increasing taxes (70%), and lack of cyber security (61%).

For more figures, insights and trends, please see the full 44-page report by PwC here.